Upcoming Vic trackdays/hillclimbs etc thread

[Ade]

It was a good day all up, albeit a bloody hot one! It was great to see John out in the M5 ~ such a beautiful car. And it was a pleasure to meet you, Burkey.

For those who have yet to see Burkey's 325iS, they're in for a treat ~ a wonderfully prepared vehicle ~ and one that has a fantastic note to it as well. And if anyone is after a perfect choice of Recaro for their car, have a sit in Burkey's. Perfect balance between a bucket and a shell. Lovely! Check out his brake setup, too ~ great ducting!

For those that were there and heard of my steering / headers interference well that was because BOTH my motor mounts were broken....

!!! Bloody hell, mate! Well done for soldiering on. Still, as far as a test day goes I suppose that's part and parcel of it ~ see what stresses out and packs it in so you can make it better.

Ade, looking for that video!!

I'm uploading some stuff now. I'll post it here and in my 325i thread. Not great quality...but I did get your save ~ Looks great!

[jrobbo]

Nice to meet you too mate, was a good day. Your car looks fantastic, the wheels suit it perfectly!

I had a really good day, my was understeering too much as expected so I was having to trail brake everywhere to get it to turn in, but managed to set my fastest time of 1:31.5.

In the last session, I got massively sideways through turn 6 at probably 140+km/h, though I was a gonna for sure, but managed to catch it, still can't believe it, closest I've ever come to losing it.

I'm booked in for the next track day on 27th March, and the weekend in Tassie in June. Will probably end up going to the trackday on 3rd April as well.

Next week, I'm going to put the softer springs in the front (currently 550 lbs, will replace with 500 lbs) and will see if that makes it any more pointy. If that's still not enough, then I will put the stiffer spring in the back (currently 400 lbs, will replace with 450 lbs) and that will hopefully do it.

I got Kent Youldon to drive my car yesterday, he's got so much experience and I wanted him to give me advise on the suspension setup. He agreed that the car was too lazy to turn in. He's such a great driver though, very agressive on the brakes, yet very smooth, I learnt a lot by watching him.

[burkey001]

I have a handy tip too for those currently struggling to remove the sound deadening from the boot floor of E30s... flog your car for a day


I opened my boot after a 20 min session and the floor was so hot the tar sheets just lifted clean off the floor. JOB DONE! into the bin they went in the pits

[Ade]

Awesome! What a time saver that proves to be. No need for a hair-dryer or dry ice.


Vids are about an hour or so away.

I managed to piece together two. The GoPro one is ~ well ~ a little poor in quality but quite watchable; the in car one I did with my butchered sticky pod and $150 Aiptek actually turned out quite well. The only thing against it is that the damping of the camera needs some work. And I need some foam over the mic.

EDIT: one's up!



You have a choice of 360, 480 and 720 for your viewing "pleasure" LOL! It's rather pedestrian.

These are the accompanying comments:

"The last session of the Driver Dynamics day for me, late in the proceedings ~ very, very hot indeed. The car is a 1989 BMW E30 325i sedan and the camera used was an Aiptek (very cheap ~ about $150 AUD) mounted via sticky pod on the rear window. Grip wasn't great and I was battling a helmet that had managed to lose a part of itself LOL! Overall, I don't think the temperature was doing anyone any favours in terms of grip, power or keeping things cool. Still, a fun day and it was good to get the old thing out on track again. I found my concentration wandering a bit in this session and it was probably best to pack it in when I did. Always better to be safe in these situations than sorry later on.

Overall, the car behaved very well, though tyres did prove to be an issue and given the temperature it developed a small amount of coolant weeping through a tired hose to the expansion tank. Coolant level was fine, though, so no biggie. Replace the tired old hose with new OEM and all will be right for next time!"

I'll post bumper cam in a little while, when it's finished processing.

[jrobbo]

Nice job Ade, your car sounds awesome, and you are driving it very smoothly.

[Ade]

Thanks, John ~ I appreciate the encouragement a lot. Cheers!

I felt myself being a tad slack on my wheel use in that session ~ losing concentration a bit, I reckon ~ but it wasn't too bad. I'm going to keep thinking about the camera setup; I reckon it will end up working OK with a bit of tweaking.

I've got to give John at BM Autowerks a bell tomorrow to see what we can do about the cooling system weepage and my brake pedal. Ever since switching fluid I've lost a little height in the pedal and I just could get consistency with my heel and toe work at all. I'll get that lot sorted for next time, though, so it should end up nicely. All that remains is to get the bugger mapped so that the mods actually work! The car definitely does not like the larger injectors as it stands, so we'll sort that one too.

[Hoadie]

Nice driving Ade, as John said - very smooth.

Is the track really as rough as the camera makes it look?

[Ade]

It's not the smoothest surface, Hoadie, not by a long shot. The front straight is rough as guts! There are some smooth parts to it, though, so I guess it evens out. That being said, however, the camera was transmitting a bit of vibration...my "damping system" needs tweaking, but it'll get a little better with work.

[Ade]

And the bumper cam....



Given that it is the GoPro, this one should be watched at 480p.

[GazM3]

nice vid Ade. remember at sandown the ripple strips are your friend esp on corners after back straight

[Ade]

Indeed, Gaz ~ still getting my head around that one after reading a few things back in the day about staying off them in street cars, but as the day progressed I used the right hand strip (turn 8) more and more. It was the same on turn one, too, where I was a lot happier on exit running right out to the strip ~ getting much more speed through turn one than previously. I also found that I was braking way to early for turn 6 and not hugging the cones on the left religiously enough to carry decent speed. This got better as the day went on. It's all about learning!

[GazM3]

a good set of semi slicks will do wonders also. nice vid BTW its funny with the mounting, it looks like your suspension is made from cement.,

[SimonM]

Anybody going to Winton in July?

[iS088]

Anybody going to Winton in July?

Me!

[GazM3]

Most likely winton. Also looking at may30 at samdown with alfa

as more clubs are listing events need an update to first schrrn list